The decision by EA to cancel Tiberium because of "quality issues", has caused an outbreak of internet fury over at Gamasutra. Developers (anonymous) with obvious inside knowledge on the inner workings at EA Los Angeles have spoken out about the underlying problems at the studio. Some of these rants may be discontent from former employees, but where there is smoke there is bound to be some fire... and the fact that Tiberium was in development for close to five years. Just wow!
Names have been named, people accused of taking drugs, middle management in the cross hair, and the future of the Medal of Honor series questioned. It's like jpod without the humour, and what seems like a devastating lack of direction at EA Los Angeles. Take it with a grain of salt or two, but it is obvious something is/was rotten over there... a few choice comments below and there is more if you follow the link:
"The thing is, Tiberium, along with MoH and all EALA/EA games, have one core fundamental problem, and that is an unnecessary and bloated amount of management. They not only gobble up the project budget while they contribute nothing to the project but needless and uninformed change, they at times only can survive by doing so, and thus are forced to, less they appear "uninvolved"."
by anonymous
"The real problem started with them placing Chris Plummer in charge. The dude had no idea how to make a video game and had mostly marketing experience - no actual game dev experience other then a few nightmare projects at EALA. He didn't listen to any of the more experienced staff and changed his mind every few months, causing the team to churn and burn things over and over. The project ended up costing as much as a Hollywood movie and wasting years of people's time. You simply cannot succeed when the guy at the head of the project has no idea what he's making, and no idea how to really do it. I'm amazed they let him churn and burn for 4 years on it. Sad... there were some great ideas in the game and some great people on the team."
by anonymous (another one)
"It sounds all so familiar...it's the same at Tiburon......too much producers and managers.....the ratio there is for every three dev guys there's one manager for it....go figure even the manager of the manager has a manager.....good luck in wanting to change something.......and just for your info......this game sounds like a breeze you guys should've been there at Tiburon for Superman....that was hell and the senior "executive" producer (driving a ferrari) chris gray, burned people time and money.....on a turd.......this was a nightmare a 4 year nightmare......heard though that he's now at EA LA which didn't make me wonder why Tiberium got canceled......."
by anonymous (yet another one)
"Having worked on 3 MOH's and with most of the people mentioned here...I can say that 80% of what's being called out here in true with regards to how things were run. Calling out people individually at any level below EP or Senior Producer isn't really necessary. Calling out how teams are organized is totally call for. Managers upon Manager upon Managers fill the cubes at EALA and I'm sure many other EA studios."
by anonymous (still another one)
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